The reality of the new collective bargaining agreement is that with the far more strict financial penalties in place for teams in luxury tax territory, most are going to try to cut costs whenever possible.

And that includes the back-to-back champion Miami Heat.

Mike Miller has been waived via the amnesty provision, the team announced on Tuesday. The move will cut the Heat’s luxury tax bill by $17 million for next season.

As a reminder, players are still paid out the remainder of the money remaining on their contract once they’re amnestied. Those dollars owed come off the team’s salary cap and are removed from luxury tax calculations, but the checks to the player are cut nonetheless. In this case, Miller will still be paid a total of $12.8 million, the total of what his deal would have been for the next two seasons.

The move comes as a mild surprise, only because Heat executive Pat Riley was on record recently saying that there were no plans for the team to use the amnesty provision on any of its players, and that unless there was a mandate from ownership, it wasn’t something that he would consider.

Miller started the last four games of the NBA Finals for the Heat, and played an important role in his team’s late comeback in Game 6 — Miller tracked down the offensive rebound on the play that led to a LeBron James three that kept Miami’s hopes alive.

Miller has value and can still play, but injuries have limited him severely in recent years. He appeared in just 59, 39, and 41 regular season games for the Heat in each of the last three seasons.

John Schuhmann of NBA.com notes that this will have little overall impact on the Heat’s rotation next season, when Miami will return 94.9 percent of last season’s minutes — 10 percent more than any other team.

Miami may look to fill Miller’s now-vacant roster spot a number of ways. It could make a Greg Oden signing easier, or they could use part of their tax-payer’s mid-level to chase someone such as Lamar Odom. There also is rookie James Ennis of Long Beach State, whom they picked up with a late second round pick in this year’s draft following a trade with the Hawks. It would be a minimum, non-guaranteed deal, providing very little overall risk — financial, or otherwise.

“I understand the business side of basketball,” Miller told Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. “It’s a combination of being very, very thankful for the opportunity that I’ve had, but it hurts that we had a chance to do something very, very special and I’d love to have been a part of it.”